What now?!

[Mamaorca77]

Tank specs..
20 gal freshwater
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0-0.25ppm test have fluctuated the past cpl days
Nitrate 10ppm
pH 6.8
Temp 76F
Current fish
3 female platy
2 female guppy
2 albino cory
1 female swordtail
The only new addition is the swordtail. All males (2 male guppies, 2 male platy, and 1 male swordtail) were moved to my 50g because they harassing the females.

Here's what's going on.. I noticed white spots on 1 of my male platy a cpl wks ago, and treated with Tetra Lifeguard. It seemed to work, but I lost the platy. Well, earlier this week, I noticed spots on one of the female gups. Here we go again..So, I moved the snail that was housed in my tank and treated with Jungle Ich Guard, but it didn't seem to do anything, so I did about a 90% WC and got Kordon Rapid Cure earlier today after reading good reviews online. The problem? Since dosing the tank, all of my platies and the sick guppy have taken to hiding at the bottom of the tank. It also looks like the gup and possibly one of the platy have developed the shimmies! My swordtail, blue female guppy and cory seem fine. Help please!! I don't want to do a wc and take the meds I just put in out, but I also don't want to lose these fish! One platy in particular has been with me since the start and managed to survive a fish in cycle, and she is pregnant by my fave male, who I lost! Oooh AND I'm pretty sure my blue guppy is about to drop fry any sec, so I'm worried about them, too! TIA

 

[NickAu]

Hi

Tetra Lifeguard

Quoting Tetra.

Use for treating fungus, ick, red streaks, milky or shedding slime, flukes, bacterial gill disease, mouth and fin rot, clamped or torn fins, and ulcers. Lifeguard Tablets may also be used as a preventive when adding new fish.

Hallelujah we have a miracle product that treats and prevents a range of illnesses.

Are you sure its Ich?

Can you post photos of the fish?

Fact.
In most cases all you need to treat Ich is temperature. Raise the water temp to 30 deg C for a week and you are done. Ich cant reproduce at that temp so once it drops off the fish and at 30c that takes about 12 to 18 hours it cant breed and re infect your fish.

Please note
You must have an airstone and air pump running to keep the water oxyganated.

 

[Mamaorca77]

She's all over the place but I got this when she was sitting on the bottom. Pretty sure it's ich..little white spots that look like sand on her fins and along her back, and I've seen her flashing a cpl times. I have read about the heat treatment but my heater on this tank won't let me adjust the temp, it stays at 76F. I have an air pump and bubbler on the tank.

 

[Mamaorca77]

The Lifeguard was great! I think maybe my filter was the issue with not completely eradicating the ich. That or the swordtail that I didn't have a tank to quarantine brought it back. Remedied that situation, now this! Lol Worst part is I had planned to move a few fish around because this one is getting close to being over stocked and WILL when my fry are big enough to move in, but I'm not risking infecting my 50.. Have you used Kordon and if so did any of your fish show stress after dosing? A cpl of the ones that seemed stressed earlier seem a bit better now, but my green lantern that is the OG of the tank is still kinda shimmying..

 

[Mamaorca77]

Better pics maybe..

 

[Colin_T]

Here's what's going on.. I noticed white spots on 1 of my male platy a cpl wks ago, and treated with Tetra Lifeguard. It seemed to work, but I lost the platy.

So it didn't work then, did it
I give you a slap on the wrist for waiting so long to ask for help

I can't tell much from the pictures besides the fish having clamped fins and a white edge around their body and fins that could be excess mucous from being poisoned by medications or poor water quality, or it could be the photo.

If the fish are shimmying and clamping their fins and are not happy, then you have probably over dosed them. If you use one medication, you should do at least 2 big (75-90%) water changes and do a complete gravel clean before adding a different medication.

For the most part, fish medications contain low levels of toxic chemicals that kill organisms in water, including fish if too much is added. One of the medications you mentioned contains Malachite Green and this will treat all protozoan infections in fish (whitespot, velvet, costia, chilodonella & trichodina). Re: the other 2 medications you mentioned, I have no idea what is in them from a chemical perspective but mixing chemicals is bad.

I would suggest doing a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank. Then take a bunch of pictures and check them on your pc. Find a couple that clearly show the issue and post them on here.

Doing a big 90% water change and complete gravel clean each day will dilute the parasites in the water to a level so they shouldn't kill the fish that quickly. This will buy us some time to figure out what is going on. If it is whitespot then you can start treating with heat or the malachite green based medication.

There is some information about Ich (whitespot) at the following link. The first post on the first page is more technical. The last post on the second page is more for beginners.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/

----------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will help you convert litres to gallons.

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Lastly, the pH is a bit low at 6.8. Whilst not a major issue now it should be increased a bit so it is just above 7.0. You can add a small bag of shells to the filter, or have a small bit of limestone/ sandstone in the tank and these will help raise the pH a bit.

 

[Mamaorca77]

Colin, I know!! I thought I had it under control and then all hell broke loose!! I feel horrible so I accept your wrist slap and have given myself a few!! I wondered about the pH, it was higher just last wk, could it be dueto the meds?! Or the half million wc's I've done lately?! I did a 75% WC last night before bed and I'm gonna do another shortly. The girls seem a bit better this morn and I believe my blue female guppy had fry, she is significantly smaller today. I haven't seen any yet, so wc is going to be a challenge! Oh, I did notice a platy with spots this morn who hasn't had them..wth happened over night?! Seriously at the point of watching this tank all day! On a brighter note, my wk old fry and mystery miracle fry are thriving, as are the inhabitants of my 50g, so there is nothing to keep my attention from the girls. (Off work today, too!) Oh, and I'm seriously gonna need to go through the fw species list here, cuz I just saw last night where u say dwarf gourami are awful! I have 1 at the moment in the 50. So far, so good, but..

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish in your latest pic has whitespot it is really bad.

The whitespot cysts would have opened during the night and the parasites attached to the fish that didn't have spots previously. Because this has been going on for a couple of weeks the substrate is going to be full of whitespot cysts that will be hatching each day.

After you do a big water change and complete gravel clean in the morning, start treating them again. Use the Malachite Green medication and treat them for at least 10 days. Increase aeration too.

Make sure you wash your hands and buckets, gravel cleaner, etc, with warm soapy water after using them in the sick tank. Then rinse well and allow to dry for 24 hours before using them on another tank.

 

[Mamaorca77]

Ok getting on that as soon as I get home. Thanks